For McCain, Convention Disruption Is Peril Wrapped in Opportunity

ST. PAUL, Minn. - John McCain built his campaign on the theme "Country First." By stripping his own convention down to a relief appeal, his team hopes the nation will see the slogan made flesh — if it is watching at all.

The calculation is delicate. The 2008 Republican brand is damaged, President Bush is deeply unpopular, and McCain needs the convention to consolidate his party and sharpen his contrast with Barack Obama. But a convention seen partying through a Gulf Coast disaster could be worse than no convention at all.

"Senator McCain said from the beginning that we would take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats," a senior adviser said. "Voters will judge us by whether we meant it."

The disruption also buys time for the Palin rollout, which was still being assembled when Gustav intervened. Her nomination speech, the week's pivotal event, can be rewritten for a nation now watching a different story.

McCain's path remains the harder one: he trails in cash, in polls and in party enthusiasm, and he would be the oldest first-term president in history. His campaign believes the race turns on whether voters see him as his own man rather than Bush's heir.

The storm has done one thing for him already: Bush and Vice President Cheney will not share the St. Paul stage.

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